Typically, gas turbine engines include a compressor for compressing air, a combustor for mixing the compressed air with fuel and igniting the mixture, and a blade assembly for producing power. Combustors often operate at high temperatures that may exceed 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit. The high temperatures create a high stress environment under which components of the turbine engines must operate.
Monitoring of the turbine engine components in this high stress environment is difficult due to the temperature that the monitoring equipment must withstand and the high speed and vibrations that the monitoring equipment must endure and still provide data. For instance, monitoring of a gas turbine through use of imaging that requires lenses is difficult because the lenses act as a thermal target and become opaque to transmission of optical radiation. Fiber optic endoscopes or fiber probes use typical telecommunications optical fiber to conduit light from the object or component, but are opaque to the infrared wavelengths and thus are unsuited for use in a turbine engine environment.
Thus, a need exists for a device for monitoring of gas turbine engine components that can operate effectively in a high stress environment including elevated temperatures.